BUS TO DESTINATION

The bus stopped in front of my house, even though there was no bus stop. It was silver, and a large sign announced "BUS TO DESTINATION."

What a strange name, I thought. After all, everyone who gets on it has a completely different destination.

It blocked my view of the other side of the street, where a moment earlier a beautiful blonde was laboriously trying to unlock her car with her keys. I wanted to continue watching, but suddenly the door opened and the bearded driver, eyeing me suspiciously, asked.

"Are you getting in or not?"

At first, I thought he was addressing someone else entirely, but I was completely alone. Completely alone this morning, when it was always crowded at this time. Except for the blonde, of course, but she was more of an image than a person.

"Me?

" "And what about the Holy Spirit?"

I had the day off and wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Remembering the night before, which wasn't quite right, I hadn't yet decided how I wanted to spend it. Maybe a little differently, and this bus was an alternative, though I didn't know where it was going.

On an unfamiliar impulse, seeing several people inside, I decided to get in, ignoring the unfamiliar fear that had crept up inside me for no apparent reason.

The driver slammed the door behind me and started the engine. He didn't ask if I had a ticket or where I wanted to get off. He didn't say anything, just focused on driving. A little disoriented, I surveyed the passengers. A young woman in a miniskirt sat there, giving the impression she was returning from a night out. There was also a completely incongruous priest, focused on prayer. In the back, I saw a sleeping man in a torn shirt, the smell of alcohol permeating the bus. To my left sat a somewhat agitated man in a suit, clutching a black briefcase tightly on his lap. Now I too joined this strange company.

I chose the first available seat and sat down. And then, staring out the tinted window, through which I couldn't see much, I remembered my night's dream. Although the details had been hazy after waking, everything now came clear to my mind.

There was a bus, an empty road, and the desert. I smiled to myself and thought I must have been going crazy all morning. The day had started strangely and continued strangely.

I glanced at the front of the bus, where the driver was sitting, and right next to the window, I noticed a lighted sign moving across a black strip.

"The condition for immortality is death."

What a strange sign, I thought. I expected the name of the next stop, but instead I saw a thought I'd heard somewhere before. I decided it was time to find out where this bus was going. Perhaps its passengers could give me the full details?

I glanced back at the young woman clutching her legs.

"Excuse me, ma'am, where exactly are we going?"

She seemed surprised that someone was speaking to her and ignored my question. And it wasn't from her that I received the answer.

"To our destination, brother, wherever it is for each of us," the young priest said.

"Is it far?" I asked

. The priest only now looked in my direction. I saw that he was carrying a thick book on his feet, probably a Bible.

"Don't you know that? Look deep into your own soul, and you will know where your destination is," he replied

. It wasn't the answer I expected, but for the time being I preferred not to start any discussion.

I glanced out the window and, slightly surprised, noticed that we were driving down a deserted road in a completely unfamiliar area, more of a rocky desert than a suburban neighborhood that we could reach in a few minutes. I didn't recognize the place, yet I knew the city intimately. I was starting to dislike it all less and less.

"When's the next stop?" I asked, but no one answered. Slightly nervous, I stood up and approached the driver.

"Driver. Where are we going?

" He didn't even notice me. The road ahead was empty, right up to the horizon. How had we found ourselves in such a strange place in just a few minutes?

"Please stop immediately! I'm getting off here!" I shouted, exasperated.

"Please don't shout!" an awakened drunkard called from behind me.

At that moment, an elegantly dressed man approached me and began whispering.

"Sit down, sir..." he said with fear in his voice.

This was too much. Nervously, I pushed the man away and grabbed the driver's hand. I felt something strangely unnatural and alien under my fingers. The driver looked at me and smiled terrifyingly.

"You don't believe in your own destiny. It's a sin!" the priest exclaimed.

"What destiny are you talking about!" I wasn't going to dwell on that in my plans for today!

"Me neither, and yet here I am. No one knows their day or hour... You're already dead," he said.

The girl began to cry and clutched a handkerchief.

The elegant man approached me again and said,

"Please calm down. I want to reach my destination safely..."

He had fear in his eyes, and his whole body trembled.

"Will anyone join me for a drink?"

"God... Give us all strength on this final journey..."

"Gentlemen... I have to report... "

Another inscription appeared on the black frame.

"WHERE THERE IS DEATH, THERE IS LIFE."

The girl reached out her hand and placed it in my hands. She looked deeply into my eyes and said,

"I don't know you, but I know about you... I don't know why I have so much? I envy your memories..."

At that moment, I realized I couldn't remember anything. My life was unknown to me, and I didn't know who I was or what my name was. Panic slowly seized me. But on the other hand, something was very important to me. I realized I couldn't go any further and had to return immediately. I looked at the woman again, searching her eyes for help.

"What else do you know about me?"

She began to cry again and evaded answering.

"Only God knows everything about us," the priest exclaimed.

"What the hell are you talking about? Is this a bus of lunatics!?" I cried, grabbing the driver's hands with all my strength. At that moment, the bus braked sharply and stopped. All the windows flew out, showering the floor with tiny crystals. The sound of breaking glass was almost silence compared to the scream the woman uttered. The driver seemed to come to his senses and looked at me with dull, lifeless eyes. Without thinking, I ran out of the bus and surveyed the landscape around me. As far as my eyes could see was a stony desert, emptiness, and in my ears the hum of growing silence.

Where was I? What was this strange place?

A girl stood behind me, trying to calm her hysteria. And as I looked at her, I saw something strange in my mind. Her last moments... the moments of her life. I saw a white room, a man, and a gun in his hands.

"Give me the money, bitch, or I'll kill you!" I heard a voice in my mind, and then a shot. And only now, when she raised her head, did I see the red mark on her chest...

A dandy got out of the bus, a drunkard, and finally a priest. Only the drunkard hadn't realized it yet. He pulled a bottle from his pocket, took a long swig, and then belched.

"What a shitty life." Maybe I'll finally like it here? he asked.

The priest was the calmest. With a smile on his face, he looked at the blue sky and then asked,

"Does anyone of you know how and why I died?

" "You were too good to people," the drunkard said. "You wanted to save the world... but it can't be saved..."

"Yes... Despite that, I found God... He clearly needed me...

" "God? Well, you can think so, man... You can call our eternity that... But God isn't all around us, and we're not heading towards eternal immortality... It's a new life... if we understand its continuation.

" "What do you know about that, son..."

Nervously, I approached the priest and looked into his eyes. In an instant, I saw a film of his life, or rather, a scene in his room, where, high on cocaine, he had screwed a young female member of his church. At first, I was terrified, but the next, I realized his faith was thoroughly corrupted, a fact he was well aware of. He had the faith of a madman.

I couldn't bear it any longer and stepped aside.

The drunk took a few steps away from us, turned around, and urinated.

"Would I still pee after I died?" Hell, I must have died, but I don't feel it. "

They found you dead in a narrow alley... There was a bottle of bad alcohol nearby," the elegant man said timidly. "

I knew I'd end up like this... It's nothing new to me..." the drunk replied, pulling up his pants. He looked at everyone in turn, first in surprise, then laughing foolishly. It was as if he saw in his mind what others had experienced.

It was all utterly insane. People were telling each other stories about their own deaths. If it was true, then who knew the truth about me?

"And me?" I asked

. This time the girl spoke. She had stopped crying and came closer to me. Only now, in the sunlight, did I see her greatly damaged beauty. She had once been beautiful, but her charm had long since faded, and now she pretended to herself that she was completely different.

"I don't know how I know this, but I do... You died of love... It was a beautiful death... You were sick... You gave yourself... to someone who needed it. And I see your love, your untamed and unsatisfied passion.

There was something incredible about this girl that I didn't immediately notice. With that weak voice of hers, she could freeze the blood in my veins. I would have been much less frightened at that moment if she had been fat, old, and her face smeared with thick lipstick."

She reached into her purse for another tissue, and at that moment a small doll fell out. She grabbed it and clutched it tightly to her heart. I realized it meant more to her than anything in the world.

Finally, the driver got out and took a few hesitant steps toward me.

"What we know about ourselves is an illusion... None of us knows or remembers who we really were. We only have a fragment of something completely alien within us. Someone else's thoughts and lives, which have wandered into our minds in an incomprehensible way. I don't know why this happens, but it does. Our entire existence was an illusion, a falsehood, perhaps someone's game or a stage performance. I think that here, in this place where we are, everything begins anew or has a justified end. Maybe we will once again begin living only the illusion of our own existence."

He looked around, fixed his gaze on the empty, foggy horizon, and spat.

"There's the city, the beginning of each of us," he said, pointing to the horizon.

The priest knelt and began to pray fervently. The drunkard walked past him indifferently and asked the driver,

"Will I be a drunk now too?"

"Would you like to be?

" "I don't know... But I think I've lived quite a few years. I'm not young anymore, and I have some joy in my heart. Maybe it's a memory of my real life? If I feel happiness, it must not have been bad. I don't believe the nonsense you said. I felt alive and I feel I'd experienced a lot, even though I ended up a drunk.

" "You're experiencing liberation from evil, and that's why you're happy," the elegant man replied, opening a black briefcase. Inside, he saw blank, empty pages.

"This is your life," the driver said. It was as blank as that paper...

I wasn't interested in my companions at all. I desperately wanted to know why I died of love. I reached into my pocket and found a photo of a woman. She had thick, black hair, large breasts, and a shapely figure. Something told me I loved her very much... Something told me to return to her because I wouldn't see her again. I didn't want a new life full of new illusions. I wanted the old one, where she was, even though I knew little about her.

"I want to go back. Even if I die there in five minutes and never get another chance. I want to see my beloved again," a voice spoke within me. "

God bless us and lead us to eternity..." the priest whispered, and only then did he open his Bible. But inside there were no pages, only yellow sea sand. Fear of something unknown, something he couldn't imagine, appeared in his eyes.

"God! Why have you abandoned me!" he cried, raising his hands.

Out of nowhere, another bus suddenly appeared. It stopped in front of me, and an equally hideous driver peered out.

"Five minutes of the old life for everyone... Who decides?

" The drunk was the first to leave. He had nowhere to go, and he must have sensed it. The woman almost fled, and the timid, elegant man retreated backward. Only the priest hesitated. But he didn't get on either. He blessed the bus first, then me, and said,

"I envy you, my son. I envy your love. For five minutes, you will sacrifice your eternity... You have greater faith than I do. I don't want to find out why I wanted to save the world at all costs. Now I want to save it all over again. Wherever I end up... But you still have to answer one question. What is the purpose of your return?

" "If I died for someone, then they had to suffer. I don't want them to suffer. I want to take that pain upon myself," I replied.

I looked at the driver, who was also waiting, and asked.

"What's the next condition for immortality?

" "To come back," he replied, laughing out loud.

I didn't understand his answer, but there was a certain hope hidden within it. Perhaps my eternity would depend on the few minutes life would grant me? I nodded and got on, the doors slamming shut behind me. The bus was empty. It had probably stopped many times before, and no one had boarded. Everyone wanted another chance, another illusion to make better use of. I preferred to recapture the few minutes of love I knew so little about. The words "Love is the way to life"

appeared on the black stripe. THE END.